Labor's Left and Right distinctions erased

Mark Davis

THE nearest thing to a Rudd Government inner sanctum isn't the cabinet room but a select cluster of offices fanning out from the Prime Minister's suite in Parliament's ministerial wing. Whether by accident or design, the physical layout of the ministerial wing reflects the personal, factional and political architecture of the Labor Government.

Front and centre, naturally, is the PMO - the Prime Minister's Office, an L-shaped suite of offices housing Kevin Rudd and his advisers. Next door is his deputy, Julia Gillard; behind her and also immediately adjacent to the PMO is the Treasurer Wayne Swan. Across a corridor is the Transport Minister and left-wing factional chief Anthony Albanese.

But most interesting of all is the location of Mark Arbib, the NSW Right factional chief who became Employment Participation Minister in Rudd's frontbench shuffle in June.

Arbib is the only junior minister on the ministerial wing's ground floor, where the big boys and girls of cabinet live, rather than on its first floor with the rest of the outer ministry. His office is at the end of a corridor, out of the way of the Rudd-Gillard-Swan-Albanese precinct, yet just a short walk from the PMO's more discreet side entrance.

A great many pairs of Labor eyes are trained on Arbib, the man who has presided over the re-emergence of the NSW Right as a dominant force inside federal Labor. Sentiments range from grudging admiration to incipient paranoia. But the word most often used by Labor insiders discussing the rise of the ''new'' NSW Right is ''architecture''. For there have been important changes since the 2007 election in the subterranean power structures that underpin the Prime Minister's ascendancy inside Labor.

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An earlier architecture dates from Opposition and Rudd's wresting of the Labor leadership from Kim Beazley, when he entered an alliance and power-sharing arrangement with Gillard. Rudd's votes in that caucus leadership contest came from three areas: a chunk of the NSW Right (courtesy of Arbib and pro-Latham elements in the NSW Right influenced by Gillard) and strong majorities of the Victorian Left and the Victorian Right (also courtesy of Gillard).

Now Rudd commands his own authority. And a new factional architecture overlies the old framework.

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Rudd's new power base is an alliance between a now-unified NSW Right (led by Arbib), the ''hard'' Left from all states (led by Albanese), and an enlarged Queensland Right (led by Swan). Marshalling those three blocs yields nearly 50 of the 115 Labor caucus votes - a hop, skip and jump away from a majority.

Says one factional player: ''Rudd is building the architecture of his prime ministership around the NSW cabal and his own Queensland support. Arbib presents himself as the kingmaker and it is only fair to conclude that is how Kevin Rudd treats him. Albanese has seamlessly transformed himself from a member of Kim Beazley's praetorian guard to a member of Kevin Rudd's praetorian guard.''

A key part of the new framework is the rejuvenated NSW Right. The faction was a major force in the 1980s but fell on hard times during federal Labor's time in opposition.

''After we lost power we got into huge amounts of internal fighting,'' said one NSW Right MP. ''Rudd's succession ended that period. Arbib's arrival in Canberra … has led to the outcome where the NSW party is more united than we have been for a decade. That has paid dividends in the way that Kevin Rudd has dealt with us.''

Arbib was general secretary of the NSW ALP but avoided opprobrium for the State Labor Government's serial implosions because he was elected a senator in 2007. He was accompanied on the trip down the Hume Highway to Canberra by his friend, Jason Clare, the new member for Blaxland. Two other close NSW Right allies, Tony Burke and Chris Bowen, had entered Parliament in 2004.

Colleagues refer to them as the Gang of Four. All are in their 30s. At each Rudd reshuffle they have advanced. ''Arbib, Bowen, Burke and Clare are going to be the backbone of Labor for a long time to come,'' says an out-of-state factional fellow traveller.

However, a NSW Left MP reckons there is ''a subterranean contest'' between Burke and Bowen as to who is going furthest. Meanwhile considerable attention focuses on Clare, often talked up as the coming talent.

Then there is Arbib. It's perhaps apocryphal, but Labor MPs say that when Arbib secured Senate preselection he told colleagues he wasn't moving to Canberra to play second fiddle. ''Arbib is very good in the shadows,'' says one NSW party elder. ''The question is whether he wants to be a Graham Richardson-style figure in the shadows or a player of the first rank.''

The central plank of the new architecture is an alliance Arbib has forged with Albanese. The Albanese or ''hard'' Left in NSW is associated with unions like the metal workers as opposed to the ''soft'' or Ferguson Left, which is linked to the Miscellaneous Workers Union and a more rank and file-oriented view of how the party should be run.

''The NSW machine is now essentially a Left-Right complex which dominates the party to implement cross-factional fixes rather than right-wing fixes,'' said one insider.

''Albo is as integral a member of the NSW machine as Arbib. This one, androgynous machine markets itself as Left and Right, which hoodwinks people into not realising it is just one group.''

Another factional leader agrees. ''Arbib and Albanese is a very strong, trusting relationship. They built a strong relationship dealing with NSW business and that has carried over into their relationship in Canberra. Arbib and Albo have done a deal to completely destroy the soft Left in NSW. The deal is that at every point they will eliminate all soft Left people.''

Too harsh an assessment? The view from inside the Arbib-Albanese axis is that it is all about delivering the internal stability that is crucial to the Federal Government's political prospects.

''It's about putting the party first rather than putting the faction first,'' said one MP close to the axis. ''That gives the Prime Minister a solid platform which helps him across the country factionally. The fact that people know the Prime Minister can rely on that [support] just makes it easier - people don't have to watch their back.''

One test of whether the axis is an entirely altruistic exercise will be the fate of soft Left MP and Gillard supporter Laurie Ferguson. Ferguson's Sydney seat of Reid is to be abolished in an electoral redistribution and he is looking for preselection for a new seat.

A Ferguson supporter says the Government's unity will depend on how Arbib and Albanese handle the NSW preselections. ''Rudd's success is he is all embracing; that will carry us through when things get tough. But if people [like Laurie Ferguson] are going to be blocked, if preselections are going to be manipulated, it has the potential to blow up.''

While the NSW preselections are an immediate preoccupation, a more significant question is what the new architecture means for Gillard.

Rudd has involved Gillard intimately in the decision-making processes of the Government, heaping praise on her publicly and anointing her as his successor. That personal architecture remains strong.

Yet the demise of former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon earlier this year led to conspiracy theories. Some sense the hand of the NSW Right and see Gillard as the ultimate loser.

''Fitzgibbon was a rock-solid Gillard mate, terminated on the basis of leaks from persons largely unknown and replaced with two new entrants in Mark Arbib and Greg Combet, both part of the new architecture,'' said an MP.

Fitzgibbon himself gives no credence to the view that NSW colleagues played a role in his troubles. But another MP insists the Arbib-Albanese-Swan network is adverse for Gillard:

''You can't help suspect that what is being developed incrementally and with a long-term horizon in mind is an anti-Victorian structure in which Queensland and NSW figures predominate. You have to pay due homage to the thoroughness of Rudd and Arbib in how they think and plan. They are organising for the next fight, not the last fight.''

Gillard backers do not want to give oxygen to this interpretation. ''It's just not as coherent a story as people make out,'' said a Gillard spear-carrier.

''The Left is not homogeneous, nor is the Right. There is developing at the federal level a much more consensus-based approach.

''Arbib's preoccupation will be to perform professionally at a national level … We came through a period of very deep problems, 12 years of tough times, but then we won the election. That changes the nature of the dialogue. You focus on building a long-term Labor government.''